Stranded
by Gemini14
Summary: CosmoWarrior Zero Fanfic. After crashlanding on a backwater planet, Harlock and the bounty huntress Sylviana come to an uneasy truce. But will it only remain a truce? RR Please! DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter One

Stranded

Chapter One

Sylviana cursed her rotten luck. She was in the middle of nowhere, on a backwater planet, and, somewhere on that planet, Harlock the space pirate had also crash-landed. 

"I don't believe this." Sylviana grumbled, for the thousandth time that day, as she attempted to render repairs to her damaged ship. After an hour of trying, she sighed and threw her tools aside. There was no saving her ship; it was now scrap metal.

"You know, you should consider yourself lucky. You walked away from that unharmed." A male voice said, from behind her. Sylviana whirled around, guns held at ready. There stood Harlock, giving her an extremely annoying, patronizing look. A patronizing look that had a tinge of humor in it.

"Don't look at me like that, pirate!" Sylviana demanded.

"Then how should I look at you?" Harlock asked, not bothering to hide his amusement at the obviously miffed huntress. 

"Shut up, or I'll kill you where you stand." Sylviana threatened, angry that he was not taking her seriously. He smirked, and took a step closer. 

"Don't move!" Sylviana shouted, firing a shot that barely missed the pirate's head. He arched an eyebrow.

"Good shot, but it still missed." Harlock said, as he walked past her and took a good look at her ship. 

"Well, that settles it. This ship is a goner. Not even Tochiro could make this machine fly again. Nor mine, for that matter." Harlock mused, as he ran his gloved hand along one of the twisted wings of the crumpled space fighter.

"You're ship is that bad a shape too?" Sylviana asked. Harlock sighed and nodded.

"One thing's certain, we're not going anywhere for a while. Does your ship have a survival pack?" Harlock asked, as he looked at Sylviana.

"Yeah. I got it out right after I crashed. I also got the tool kit out, for what good it did me." Sylviana replied, bitterly, forgetting for a moment who she was talking to. 

"Then you should be all right." Harlock said, as he started to depart.

"Wait, where are you going?" Sylviana asked, suddenly coming to herself.

"Back to my campsite. I'm trying to set up a distress beacon." Harlock replied, as he looked over his shoulder at her. As he started to walk in the direction he'd come, he paused and looked back again.

"Well? Are you coming or not?" Harlock asked.

"Why should I go with you?" Sylviana asked, stubbornly.

"This isn't a very safe place to camp alone. Neither of us really knows what's out there, or whether or not they eat people, or worse. I would rather not wake up in the morning and come here to find your remains scattered all over this clearing." Harlock said, quietly, his usual seriousness settling back onto his features again. He watched as uncertainty crossed the huntress' face, then she grumbled a curse under breath and stepped towards him, her face a mix of irritation and something else.

"Okay, I'll come with you, just don't try anything." Sylviana threatened. 

"I'm not Tochiro, so you don't have to worry." Harlock replied, dryly. Sylviana felt her face flush as she remembered the day Tochiro had sliced the front of her dress open in the bar. 

"You're blushing, huntress." Harlock commented, quietly. This got an immediate response.

"I am not!" Sylviana snapped.

"Then why is your face red?" Harlock asked, his expression deadpan.

"None of your business!" Sylviana retorted, as she shouldered her pack and stomped past Harlock, still blushing as she did so. 

"Wrong way, Huntress." Harlock called, after her. 

"My name is Sylviana!" Sylviana shouted.

"Okay, okay, Sylviana. Though you're still going the wrong way." Harlock said, sighing as the stubborn huntress stomped back into view.

"Lead the way then, pirate." Sylviana growled, hating having to look to a man for anything.

"Sure………………just one thing though, my name is Harlock. I would appreciate it if you showed me some common courtesy by calling me by name, instead of calling me 'pirate' all the time." Harlock said, as he started leading the way. 

"Whatever." Sylviana grumbled, sulkily. The walk to Harlock's campsite was a surprisingly short distance away from where Sylviana's ship had crashed. 

"This is only temporary." Sylviana snapped.

"Of course." Harlock replied, his patience surprising even the belligerent Sylviana. As the afternoon waned into evening, Sylviana could see that the space pirate was working his fingers to the bone, trying to get the distress beacon to work. She quirked up an eyebrow when the beacon sparked and he cursed softly in German.

"Having trouble, Harlock?" Sylviana asked, with a little amusement in her voice.

"No more than usual. Dammit, it would take a technological genius to put this thing together. Why the hell Tochiro didn't put an instruction manual in here with this is beyond me." Harlock grumbled, as the beacon once again shorted out, burning his fingers again.

"Sounds like the strange little man with the equally strange laugh is a bit of a scatterbrain as well." Sylviana quipped, as Harlock threw his tools down and walked away from the beacon to sit by the fire he'd made. 

"Seems that way. Care for anything to eat?" Harlock asked, changing the subject to get away from his irritation.

"No thanks." Sylviana replied. Harlock shrugged, then got some of his rations out, tore a food packet open, and started eating. Comfortable silence descended onto the camp, and, as Sylviana watched, Harlock settled his back against a tree and closed his eyes. After a while, his breathing evened out, and Sylviana knew that he'd fallen asleep.

"_He fell asleep?! And after he told me how dangerous this world is?! _" Sylviana thought, as she edged closer to the sleeping space pirate. Then she saw how tired and drawn his face looked.

"_He looks exhausted. I wonder why he looks so tired? We haven't been here longer than a day, so he shouldn't look like this unless_……………_he spent the whole day searching for me? Was he actually worried about me?_" Sylviana wondered, as she gazed at the peaceful face of the most feared space pirate in the Sea of Stars. She was starting to see the ruffian in a different light. With a sigh of resignation, she went, grabbed one of the blankets from Harlock's pack, and draped it over him. Then she went back to her own belongings, retrieved a bedroll, then prepared to go to sleep as well. Yet, even as she lay there, she stared at Harlock, with some disbelief and confusion on her face. What was he thinking? How could he trust someone, who had tried to kill him in the past, by sleeping within distance of a single shot? She was stumped.

"_I'll think more on this in the morning._" Sylviana thought, as she then turned over and looked away from the slumbering pirate, going to sleep with all her questions still circling around in her mind. 


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Sylviana awoke to hearing Harlock moving around in the camp. Even though it was still a little dark, she could see that he was now wearing a warm looking cloak. 

"Good morning, Sylviana." Harlock murmured, absently, from where he now stood.

"'Morning. How did you know I was awake?" Sylviana asked.

"I was making too much noise for anyone to sleep through." Harlock replied, dryly.

"Ah. What are you doing up so early?" Sylviana asked, curious as to what the pirate was up to at that time of the morning.

"Getting ready to move away from this clearing." Harlock replied, as he bent to pick up his pack, grunting as he moved his right shoulder too quickly.

"What happened to you?" Sylviana asked, noticing the note of discomfort in Harlock's voice.

"Slept on my shoulder wrong. It's a bit stiff." Harlock replied, as he shifted his pack into a more comfortable position. 

"I see. So you intend to carry your stuff on that stiff shoulder all day?" Sylviana asked, dryly.

"Yes. Is that a problem?" Harlock replied, in the same tone of voice.

"Not really. It's really none of my concern whether or not you are in any pain. I am a bounty hunter, after all." Sylviana said, stuffily. 

"Then why did you even bother asking?" Harlock asked, as he shouldered the distress beacon as well.

"I thought I would be nice and ask, that's all, pirate." Sylviana snapped.

"Here we go with the whole 'pirate' thing again." Harlock muttered, then stood and waited for Sylviana to get her belongings gathered. Sylviana narrowed her eyes, but didn't say anything more as she got up and began gathering her things. All that day was spent hiking over some of the most beautiful terrain Sylviana had ever seen. During that morning they had walked through a lush forest, and when afternoon came, they found themselves in an open field that was filled with brightly colored wildflowers. And to top it all off, dusky blue mountains could be seen in the distance. She turned when she heard Harlock sigh and saw a wistful expression on his face.

"The Earth was once this beautiful……………..but I wonder how long it will be before the machine men come here and destroy all that is alive?" Harlock murmured, forgetting for a moment that Sylviana was there. In that instant, Sylviana saw the man Harlock was, and not his mask; he was merely a man who was fighting for his home, and the beauty he remembered it having. 

"Did you have any family there?" Sylviana asked. Harlock snapped out of his trance and looked at her, startled that she'd said anything. Then he calmed down again.

"My mother died when I was very small, so I don't have any memory of her. My father disappeared when I was ten, so I pretty much grew up alone. Well, not quite alone, since Tochiro, Emeraldas, and Maetel were around most of the time. But it wasn't the same." Harlock murmured, as he set his pack on the ground and sat down beside it.

"So you're an orphan too. I can relate. My parents were killed when some space pirates raided. My brothers and I barely managed to escape." Sylviana admitted, as she sat down as well.

"So that's why you hate pirates so much………….Rest assured, if you are as old as I think you are, then my father had probably already dealt with the pirates that had murdered your parents before he disappeared." Harlock said, half-jokingly, half-seriously.

"Probably. Who knows?" Sylviana murmured, surprised that Harlock was comforting her, if even in an offhand kind of way. For a few moments, there was silence, but it was a strangely comfortable one. And it was a silence that was broken when Harlock settled back and hissed in pain when his shoulder met the soft ground.

"Shoulder still bothering you?" Sylviana asked, looking over at him from around his pack.

"It's sore, but it won't kill me." Harlock replied, not looking at her, but gazing at the wispy white clouds above.

"You're stubborn, I'll give you that much." Sylviana muttered, as she did the same and looked up at the clouds. 

"Tochiro and Emeraldas are of the same opinion." Harlock said, with some amusement in his voice. 

"Did you ever figure out how to hook that beacon up?" Sylviana asked. She got a grumble in German for a response.

"I'll take that as a no. What are you going to do if you can't get it working?" Sylviana again asked. This time Harlock sat up and looked at her.

"I hope for a miracle." Harlock said, as he got to his feet and walked a little ways from where they had stopped.

"What are you doing?" Sylviana asked, deciding to let the matter drop about the distress beacon.

"Looking for a better place to spend the night. It looks like there might be a storm heading this way and camping on open ground would not be a good idea." Harlock replied, as he disappeared from sight. After only two hours, Sylviana could see that the space pirate had been right; dark clouds were gathering quickly in the east and were heading right for the valley. Just as the wind started picking up, she saw Harlock return.

"Sylviana! I've found a cave about an hour's walk from here! Do you think you can walk that far in this?" Harlock asked, shouting over the wind.

"Yes! Lead the way!" Sylviana replied, as she and the pirate shouldered their packs and equipment and started on their way. The way to the cave Harlock had found to shelter in was treacherous at best. Tree roots and loose gravel were the most of their concerns. Finally, they reached the shelter; it was a huge cave, and Sylviana secretly wondered if there were any cave paintings in the deeper parts of it. 

"Nice choice." Sylviana commented, sarcastically.

"Thanks." Harlock muttered, with a 'this is the thanks I get' tone in his voice. Sylviana grinned, but noticed that Harlock was now searching his pack for something.

"What are you looking for now?" Sylviana asked, as she got a fire started.

"Pain killers." Harlock muttered, under his breath.

"Why? Can't you handle the pain?" Sylviana teased, getting a dirty look from the space pirate for a response. With a sigh, Harlock sat down and put his back to the stone wall, stubbornly refusing to let the pain get the better of him like it just had. Sylviana smirked at him when she saw his sulky glare from across the cave, but blinked in confusion when he looked away and shivered.

"Harlock?" Sylviana asked, as a little concern sneaked into her voice. He looked at her again, then silently stood and walked off, disappearing into the shadows at the far end of the cave.

"Eesh……………………moody………….." Sylviana muttered, under her breath, bewildered by the pirate's sudden mood swing, but then shrugged it off, assuming that it was one of the pirate's quirks. As she started a fire, Sylviana again found herself thinking about what rotten luck she was having. She was stuck in the middle of nowhere, in a cave, with a very moody space pirate. Not exactly her idea of a good time. After an hour, Harlock returned, and placed a sodden bundle beside the fire.

"Changed clothes, I see." Sylviana muttered, noticing that he now wore a flight suit identical to the one he'd just placed beside the fire to dry.

"Had no other choice. It's certainly better than becoming ill here." Harlock replied, even though he already looked pale.

"You don't look so good." Sylviana said, frankly, as Harlock gave her a rather irritated glance.

"And you care for what reason?" Harlock asked, surprised when the huntress closed the distance between them and placed a surprisingly soft hand on his forehead.

"You dumbass, you've got a fever." Sylviana grumbled, as she placed her hands on Harlock's shoulders in an effort to get him to sit down. Harlock hissed in pain when her hand grasped his right shoulder, and whatever color he still had, fled at the firm touch. 

"Hold it. Let me see this shoulder." Sylviana ordered, getting a somewhat shocked look from the pirate. But he did lower the top half of his flight suit and allowed Sylviana to see his sore shoulder.

"Damn, pirate, this wasn't caused by sleeping on this shoulder the wrong way." Sylviana muttered, when she saw what the pirate had been hiding. The place over his shoulder blade was a mass of dark bruises, and it stretched down to his ribs. When she placed a hand lightly on the center of the bruising, Harlock jumped, inhaling sharply at the touch.

"Sorry. This looks bad. When did this happen?" Sylviana asked, though she had a feeling what the answer would be.

"During the crash." Harlock replied, when he was able to breathe again.

"I see. Looks like we'll be staying here for awhile." Sylviana said, as she rummaged through her pack, removed her first aid kit, then started treating Harlock's shoulder and ribs. Harlock said nothing, but she could tell that he was listening. When she had finished, Sylviana tucked the injured arm into his flight suit, while he put his uninjured arm through its sleeve and fastened the suit part of the way up.

"Can you write with both hands?" Sylviana asked, curiously, as she watched him skillfully maneuver his left hand on the buttons.

"I can, if I chose to. Being ambidextrous does come in handy at times like this." Harlock said, as he allowed part of the chest to go unfastened.

"You're full of surprises, aren't you?" Sylviana asked, smirking despite herself.

"Probably. Depends on what you consider a surprise." Harlock said, wincing when he moved his injured arm into a more comfortable position.

"Hmph. You're more stubborn than Zero." Sylviana said, as she put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Harlock muttered, in response. Yet again uncomfortable silence descended onto them, as Sylviana sulkily watched the storm rage from her seat. She turned around again when she heard him grumble something under his breath and saw him get to his feet.

"What are you doing?" Sylviana asked, impatiently.

"I saw something at the back of the cave that deserves a closer look. I'll be back in a few." Harlock said, as he went to retrieve a flashlight from his pack, then disappeared into the darkness.

"Hold up! Wait a darned minute! You shouldn't be moving around with your shoulder the way it is! Come back here you stubborn……………!" Sylviana shouted, then growled in frustration when he didn't listen to her.

"_Damn stubborn males! And some guys still wonder why I'm still single!_" Sylviana thought, as she too grabbed a flashlight and left the comfort of the fire. To her surprise, the floor was level and smooth all the way to the back of the cave, and she saw that the pirate was looking at something engraved on the wall.

"What did you find?" Sylviana asked, getting over her anger towards the pirate's stubborn nature.

"Take a look." Harlock said, moving aside so Sylviana could see. She gasped in astonishment when she saw what appeared to be an intricate relief appear on the stone wall.

"It's beautiful." Sylviana murmured, as an entire scene unfolded before her eyes. 

"It's an old story. Whoever was here before us had a good knowledge of Earth's literature." Harlock said, as he gently passed his good hand over the carvings.

"What do you mean?" Sylviana asked, as she looked again at the wall.

"This wall depicts three elves. Take a guess at what that means." Harlock said, as he shone the light on the faces of the carved wall.

"Three elves……………..? Waitaminute! Three Elven Kings! _The Lord of the Rings_!" Sylviana blurted.

"Got it. And I think the other walls also have scenes from famous books on them, as well." Harlock said, as he cast the beam across the other walls. 

"Let's take a look." Sylviana said, as she went to another wall and shone her light on it. To her shock, there was indeed another carving, but it was a far cry from the peaceful scene of the three Elven Kings. What she saw resembled a countryside similar to the one she and Harlock had walked through earlier that day, but it had old airplanes strewn across it. What really caught her eye were the two men in the picture. One of the men was very short and looked distressed, as his companion, the tall man, limped away, holding a bleeding arm as he went.

"Well? What is it?" Harlock asked, from the other end of the cave.

"I think you should look at this." Sylviana said, not trusting her eyes, nor her mouth to try and explain this new image to the pirate. When he had joined her at the wall she stood at, he gasped when he saw what she saw. 

"That man walking away looks exactly like you, and the little man in the background looks like Tochiro. What is this all about?" Sylviana asked, disgruntled at this finding.

"The reason there is a resemblance between the man in the foreground and myself is because that man was my ancestor, Phantom Harlock II. This wall depicts a moment in _My Youth in Arcadia_. Whoever was here before must have had a copy of that book. I wonder who was here…………….?" Harlock murmured, trailing off into thoughtful silence.

"You know, come to think of it, this place's floor is smooth, almost like a museum's. I wonder if the people here before us had built something like that here." Sylviana suggested.

"Maybe…………" Harlock said, but didn't sound convinced.

"Who do you think it could have been?" Sylviana asked.

"Never mind. Let's get back to the fire." Harlock said, avoiding the subject and walking back to the warmth of the campfire.

"_Was I imagining things_…………………_or was there hope in his eyes just now?_" Sylviana wondered, as she followed the pirate captain back, more than a little confused by all that they had found. 


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Harlock watched as Sylviana dozed off, since he'd stubbornly insisted on taking first watch. The storm outside had just finished blowing itself out, and now rain fell softly upon the ground. This sound, and the pain killers Harlock had finally given in to taking (at gunpoint from Sylviana, no less!), made it very hard for him to remain awake. Also to blame were the warmth of the campfire and the cloak he now wore. The only thing that prevented him from sleeping was the occasional twinge of pain from the center of the bruising on his shoulder. Then, without warning, a violent chill ran down his spine, jarring his shoulder and getting a grimace from him. With the stubbornness he was famous for, Harlock refused to let any sound of discomfort come from him, no matter how much pain he was in. 

"_Besides, I've seen that woman angry_……………._and it wasn't pretty._" Harlock thought, smirking a little when he thought back to that time when they had been facing off in a Western-type showdown. Eventually the chills subsided, and he settled back, ever careful about his shoulder as he did so. Now everything ached, a telltale sign that he had a fever. Yet still he kept his silence, refusing to let the huntress know he was feeling ill.

"_Great. This is exactly what I didn't want. What I wouldn't give for a brandy right about now._" Harlock thought, as he rubbed the back of his gloved hand against his brow, wiping the cold sweat from it. Eventually, Harlock felt his remaining strength drift away, and he slipped into fevered sleep. It was then that a silent figure emerged from the gloom and approached the sleeping space pirate. With extreme care, the figure placed a small, delicate hand on his forehead, recoiling when she found the fever he'd succumbed to.

"Well, well. It seems we have an intruder." Sylviana's voice said, from behind the figure. 

"Turn around and lower the hood. I want to see who and what you are." Sylviana demanded, as Harlock roused up and blinked confusedly up at the stranger. Slowly, the figure obeyed and turned to face Sylviana, lowering her hood as she went. Sylviana stared in stunned amazement at the stranger; she appeared to be human, about nineteen or twenty years old, with long blue hair and eyes of the same shade as her hair. Aside from the cloak she wore, the young woman wore a teal uniform that had black trim on the collar, and black boots could be seen peeking from beneath the cloak. 

"Who…………………Who are you?" Sylviana asked, stunned that they had finally met another person on this backwater world.

"My name is Oyama Mayu. Who are you?" the woman asked, not noticing when Harlock uttered a sound of surprise in his throat.

"I'm Sylviana and that is Harlock. Did you crash here too?" Sylviana asked, watching the newcomer closely.

"Oh no! The Captain and I came here when I was little. I grew up here." Mayu replied, with a smile.

"Are you the one responsible for the wall carvings?" Harlock asked, struggling to remain lucid enough to ask a question.

"Yep, but I had a little help from the Captain. Yet you shouldn't even be talking right now, since you've got a high fever." Mayu said, as she turned her attention back to Harlock, and kneeled down beside him, unaware of the scowl Sylviana was giving him.

"Not exactly news to me." Harlock replied, wincing when he found out how dry his throat was. Mayu gave him a slight look of concern.

"Maybe I should take you to the ship. It'll be warmer there than in this drafty old cave." Mayu said, when she'd seen both Sylviana and Harlock shudder from the occasional chill breeze.

"When you said 'the ship', what did you mean?" Harlock asked, almost begging for more information.

"Why don't you come with me and see?" Mayu asked, answering Harlock's question with one of her own. Harlock exchanged a glance with Sylviana; what did they have to lose?

"All right. I guess we leave most of our stuff here, since we'll be helping you, Harlock." Sylviana said, getting a somewhat indignant look from the space pirate as a result.

"I can walk on my own, Sylviana. It was my shoulder that was hurt, not my legs." Harlock retorted, dryly, as he got to his feet, sucking in a breath when his shoulder protested against the movement. 

"Hmph." Sylviana snorted, her eyes challenging. With that, they started walking deeper into the cave.

"Weren't we back here earlier? We can't go any farther." Sylviana said, when they had reached the back of the cave, and the mural of the three elves.

"Watch." Mayu said, as she reached up and pressed something in the mural. It took only mere moments for the formerly solid stone wall to slide back and reveal a passageway.

"Whoa." Sylviana muttered, in disbelief. 

"Follow me. It's not far." Mayu said, as she started walking into the dark passage.

"Don't you need a light of some sort?" Harlock asked, uncertain as to whether or not he really wanted to go down the dark passage in his state.

"Don't worry. I've been this way many times, and the floor is smooth so you won't trip on anything." Mayu coaxed, partially hidden by the shadows where she had paused to wait for them.

"All right, I'm trusting you on this one." Harlock said, as he followed the young woman into the darkness. Sylviana hesitated for a moment, then followed; she wasn't about to let the pirate get the better of her! It took only about thirty minutes of walking to get to the end of the tunnel, but when they did finally emerge, Harlock and Sylviana were amazed by what they saw there. There, sitting silently in a berth of stone, was a familiar black battleship.

"My god……………..it's the _Arcadia_………….my father's ship…………….." Harlock muttered, his eyes glazed with a look Sylviana could only describe as shock and disbelief. Then she saw it; she remembered the model ship she had nearly stolen from Tochiro's lab in the Surimatake Cluster, and this ship looked almost exactly like it!

"Captain! I'm home!" Mayu called, her voice echoing slightly in the dimly lit cavern. She received no response. 

"Hmm………..He must still be out surveying the area. Something big landed not far from here a few days ago. And then two more ships crashed. He sent me out to look into the smaller ships, while he went to see what the big thing was." Mayu said, as she led her awestruck guests to the entrance hatch and, consequently, into the ship itself. Sylviana shivered as cool air surrounded her.

"Don't worry, it's just my father's spirit. He usually does that to newcomers." Mayu said, when she'd noticed Sylviana's look of discomfort.

"You mean this ship is haunted?" Sylviana asked, shakily.

"Not 'haunted' per se, just protected by a guarding spirit." Mayu corrected.

"Mayu, what made the Captain decide to come here?" Harlock asked, looking decidedly pale as he spoke.

"I don't know. I was very young when we came here, but I know he was very sad. He was grieving for someone." Mayu replied, sobering when she remembered some faded childhood memories.

"I see. Did he ever mention having a son in all the time you had been here?" Harlock asked.

"No." Mayu said, shaking her head quietly.

"_Is it just me, or does he really look hurt by that bit of news?_" Sylviana thought, as a look of pain entered Harlock's brown eyes.

"But he did often say something to the effect of 'I wonder how he's doing?' or 'What kind of man has he become?'. He never specified who he was talking about, though." Mayu amended, having noticed the slight look of hurt in the pirate's eyes as well. 

"I know my way around now, Mayu. I think I'll just go ahead and find the sickbay so I can lie down. Why don't you show Sylviana around? I'm sure she's curious about it." Harlock said, as he walked down the hall, disappearing into the shadows as he did so.

"I think I hurt him." Mayu murmured, jumping when the huntress placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry about him. He's a strong, stubborn man. He'll work out his issues on his own." Sylviana reassured, then thought, "_At least_……….._I hope so._" 

A shadowy figure watched from the tree line as men and machine men alike worked on the hull of a massive black and yellow battleship. Through one silvery-gray eye, the man watched as the crew worked around the clock to repair the damages to the hull, all the while waiting for a chance to get in and see what was going on inside. As silently as the shadows he now resembled, the man stole ever closer to the entrance hatch; wary lest anyone should see him. Finally, his chance came; the door opened, and the relief crew for the one working outside came through, offering the black-clad man a single chance to get in unnoticed. He took the chance. Seconds later he found himself standing in the brightly lit hallway, blinking a little from the sharp contrast to the night. Thankfully for him, the hallway was empty, and he cautiously walked down it, ready to run at a moment's notice. It took him a few moments to reach the bridge (he'd taken several wrong turns already), yet, when he did, he felt almost as though he'd been transported back twenty-five years. For a brief moment, he was a young man again, and, as he approached the captain's chair, he felt some of the old youth and vigor return. It was then that the right side of his face throbbed, reminding him that he wasn't the same man he was when he'd been appointed to captain his first ship.

"_That's right. I am no longer the man I was._" The man thought, somberly, as he looked out from the captain's position at the layout of the bridge. It was eerily similar to his old ship, yet he knew that it wasn't his ship. Then an idea occurred to him; look up the ship's manifest and blueprints and see who had designed it! With deft fingers, the cloaked man typed in what he thought was the code word, and was shocked when he saw that he was correct in his assumption.

"_Arcadia. But who would use that name? I didn't recognize any of those men outside!_" the man thought, as the image of the ship's blueprints appeared on the screen above him. His jaw dropped when he saw the name of the ship's designer and chief builder; Tadashi Daiba.

"Daiba……………why? Why did you do this? What is the meaning of this?" the man muttered, his gray eye taking in the blueprint, and seeing only the two most important ships in his life there, blended into one. 

"Hey! Who're you? What're you doin' here?!" a voice shouted. Startled, the man turned to find a young man standing there, with a laser pistol aimed at him.

"You'd best put that away, young man, or you might get hurt." The cloaked man warned, calmly. The younger man's eyes narrowed.

"We'll see who gets hurt. Hand over your weapons." The younger man ordered. The cloaked man arched an eyebrow.

"You're a little young to be giving orders, aren't you?" the cloaked man asked, again, acting as though he was going to hand over his weapons, then quickly grabbed and twisted the younger man's gun arm behind him, making him drop the weapon. 

"Sorry I had to do that, young man, but I had to. You appear to be the kind of man that will shoot first, and ask questions later. Would you mind telling me where your captain is?" the cloaked man asked, as calmly as before. 

"Why………..do you want to know?" the young man asked, his vision swimming with pain.

"I guess to find out what kind of man he is. This is a powerful ship, and I want to know if the man running it is a wise one, or a foolish one." The cloaked man said, his voice taking on a steely tone.

"He's…………….he's in his quarters…………….." the young man gasped, slumping forward when the cloaked man released him.

"Thank you. Again, I am sorry I had to do that, Second Officer." The cloaked man said, honestly.

"Wait! How did you know that I was the Second Officer?" the younger man asked, as the cloaked man paused in the doorway.

"The uniforms haven't changed all that much since I was in the military. And I could tell by how many bars are on your lapel." The cloaked man said, coolly, but with a hint of humor in his eye.

"Who are you?" the young man asked, his voice almost a whisper.

"Just an old soldier who doesn't really belong anywhere anymore." The cloaked man replied, before disappearing out the door, leaving the Second Officer kneeling there.

Zero sighed as he looked at the schematics print outs, wincing when he reached over to grab his mug of coffee. 

"Captain, shouldn't you be resting? I can handle the rest of that." Marina said, worriedly.

"I'm fine, Marina. Besides, this has to be done before I can get any rest tonight." Zero said, but leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed, clenching his jaw when the movement sent a twinge of pain through his ribs.

"You're not fine, Zero. I can tell just from looking at you that you're tired and making yourself sick by not resting. The entire crew is worried about you. I'm worried about you." Marina admitted.

"You should listen to your First Officer, Captain." A man's voice said, from the doorway. Zero and Marina jumped, and turned to look at who had spoken. They were startled to see a black-clad man standing there, his face hidden by the hood of his cloak.

"Who are you? How did you get on my ship?!" Zero asked, his surprise giving way to anger as he stood and faced the intruder, mahogany eyes flashing as he did so. The intruder raised both hands in front of him in a placating gesture.

"Don't strain yourself, Captain. If I had known that you had been injured, I wouldn't have come here at all. But I had to see who the captain of this ship was. To be fair with you, I will tell you who I am." The intruder said, as he pushed back the hood of his cloak, revealing his face. Once again, Zero stared in shock at the man. 

"Harlock?" Zero asked, his shock almost rendering him speechless. The intruder nodded slightly.

"I am Phantom F. Harlock III, former captain of the Earth Unified Forces battleship, _DeathShadow_, and captain of the _Arcadia_." The intruder corrected, patiently, and almost sadly.

"So, you're the man known as 'Great' Harlock. Then that would make the Harlock we know so well your son. Right?" Marina asked, feeling slightly out of place talking to a former soldier of higher rank this way. Great Harlock nodded. 

"You are correct, First Officer. Though I am a bit surprised that you have met my son." Great Harlock admitted.

"He's a close friend of mine. We fought side by side in the Battle for Technologia. He's a brave and stubborn man." Zero said, finally easing up enough to sit back down.

"I'm not surprised by that bit of news. He did inherit infamous stubbornness from both parents." Great Harlock said, with a rueful smile.

"I guess introductions are in order. I am Captain Warrius Zero, of the United Earth Independent Fleet battleship _Karyu_. And this is First Officer Marina Ohki." Zero said, as Marina saluted an amused looking Great Harlock.

"Looking at you now, Warrius, I am certain your father, Doctor Zero, would have been proud." Great Harlock said, with pride in his own eye.

"How did you know my father?" Zero asked.

"We sailed the Sea of Stars together for a long time. Truth to tell, I think I spent almost as much time in the sickbay as I did on the bridge. Tochiro used to call me accident prone. He never did bother to look in the mirror." Great Harlock muttered, getting chuckles from the young captain and his First Officer.

"I can't picture a great pirate like you being accident prone." Marina said, with a bit of a smirk on her face. Great Harlock shrugged.

"I guess it happened once or twice, but I deny that it happened all the time." Great Harlock said, with a smirk of his own. 

"What I don't get is, why are you here? Why are you on this planet, of all places?" Zero asked. Great Harlock's expression sobered.

"This is the planet I chose to die on. I came here to die, Zero." Great Harlock replied, sadly. As the heavy silence fell in the room, Zero could only think of one question; the question that would possibly break apart the man in front of him.

__

Why?


End file.
